News...but not what you know

Flushing standard tampons down the toilet can block the pipes, which can lead to sewage backflow and other hazards.

But what about biodegradable plant-based tampons that are usually broken down into natural ingredients?

We might think that this is okay for our waterways, because the material will decompose anyway. So can we flush these?

"No, we shouldn't," explained Dr. Olivia Ahn, founder of the sanitary napkin brand Planera. "The biodegradable tampons are not designed to be washable. They can still clog the pipes."

She added: "According to the UK's "Fine Washing Guidelines", washable products need to be broken down within 6 hours and passed through a 5.6 mm sieve. Biodegradable products are not necessarily water-dispersible.

In fact, Olivia said that there are currently no "certified flushable" tampons in the world.

"Fine to Flush" refers to the new official standard used to determine which wipes can be safely flushed into the toilet.

According to Water.org: "Although there has been an increase in products labeled "Do Not Flush", there are still many wet wipes labeled "Flushable" on the market that do not quickly decompose when entering the sewer system. And it didn't pass the strict test to meet the standard to get the "Fine to Flush" mark.

"The labels of these products can cause confusion among consumers and increase the problem of sewer blockage."

Even tampons that are marked as fully biodegradable should not be flushed into the toilet. 

Leah and Nikki, the founders of the organic recycling care brand Ohne, agree that although their tampons are 100% biodegradable, they never recommend flushing them or any type of tampons down the toilet.

They said: "Whether it is biodegradable or not, most wastewater systems are not designed to treat tampons at all, which can accumulate over time and cause drains to block. 

"The best way is to wrap the tampon with a little toilet paper and put it in the trash can.

"If you have a composter at home, you can put biodegradable mats and tampons in it."

Although there are currently no washable tampons, there are some sanitary napkin versions that have passed the "washable" standard-such as those made by Planera.

The founder Olivia and her team conducted extensive research to make this possible. She emphasized that although some products claim to be biodegradable, only a small part of them are actually.

This is what she learned firsthand.

"We started using biodegradable products that were not flushable, but found that it would never have a suitable environment for biodegradation," she added.

'Even if we make the entire product biodegradable, it will still be incinerated to release toxic fumes, get stuck in watercourses, clogging pipes, or in landfills for centuries, because it will not biodegrade in the right environment.

"This is when we turn to and become the world's first biodegradable mat, because we can guarantee that the product will decompose in the sewer-and eventually return to the environment as fertilizer."

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""Biodegradable" means that the product will decompose in the presence of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria (in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions)," Olivia said.

'Therefore, the percentage of biodegradable materials is important-some products label themselves as biodegradable because some materials are biodegradable. 

"The term is still misleading, because the conditions required for biodegradation are critical-so even if these materials are biodegradable, they may become permanent due to their final location."

Olivia says this is the difference between certified washable, home compostable and industrial compostable.

She added: “Certified flushable toilets are guaranteed to be biodegradable when flushed into the toilet.”

"Home compostable means that the product can be degraded in home compost, while industrial compostable requires specific controlled conditions in an industrial compostor to degrade."

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